What I think is hilarious is the one thing that everyone overlooks, and it's that we don't really need gasoline at all.. If we were able to design
(and a few people have) a way to use controlled bursts of compressed air in our cylinders instead of relying on combustion to power our motion, then
our only by-product in excess from said cylinders would be the air coming out the tailpipe.. (Compressors work off of the very same technology).

If we could make this a standard way of building our engines, we would only need oil for lubrication and it would cease to be a factor in our lives in
two major ways, price wise, with it fueling our economical breakdown(recession) and two it would decrease greenhouse gases by so much, that the
scientists that are screaming that we only have two decades to make our change or face environmental meltdown in the form of severe weather (You think
it's severe now??? You haven't seen anything yet!)

I hope and pray that one day our transportational technology will be advanced enough that it no longer affects our Earth's delicate balance, because
if we do not make this change, then we better get ready for Mother Nature's true fury, because we've only brought it upon ourselves..

As far as gas prices going down to $2.00 per gallon, well, I'll believe it when I see it..Since Saudi Arabia is only paying $0.45 a gallon for the
same gas (or purer) I think that those who control our fuel prices will only reduce them once they are truly tired of making record profits, and
that's just a dream. Who wouldn't want to make billions instead of just millions???

I hope something changes soon, because I've seen too
many people have to make the choice of groceries or needed prescriptions or gasoline for their vehicles. No one should have to make that choice.

Yeah, I think with the amount of 'inflation' that has occurred to the Dollar as a repercussion of the price of oil have corrupted the oil companies
profit margins.
(I mean all the way from the Seven Sisters down to the Mom and Pop gas
station)

I mean corruption in data, and the way the price of oil is affecting everything. The fuel used to drive the oil tankers is a prime example. Or the
wages of the employees getting a bump in the minimum wage just in time for the price of oil to sky rocket.

Could you all imagine if the minimum wage had not gone up, and oil costs were this high?

And as for free energy, right before it goes online would be a good time to buy all the Hummers and other full size SUVs that had been languishing for
next to nothing on the car lots....
DocMoreau

Would it be a kick if Rockefeller's oil hauling ships were using
some Tesla generator. Oh my gosh, he is making his own operation
immune to his own business. This is all conjecture cause we know
nothing about such things. Rockefeller did come by some technology
and gave it to the government. However the Navy may have come
across something even better in an actual ship setting. I may have
worked on a project using a smaller device.

Which brings up the compressed air mention. Liquid air has even
better properties for driving a small piston to vary electrical
current. Imagine every bump and vibration justs adds to the energy
delivered.

ED: That red avatar was too much, but a wakeup call. That old fellow
has to be wrong, so far God just keeps on giving and giving so SUVs
can drive around in the suburbs. And planes out west for the elite
who are working on all these generators.

As long as oil prices continue to spiral, pundits seem destined to argue over the reasons why. Increasing demand from emerging Chinese and Indian
markets is sure to be at least partly to blame, but no-one can agree on the influence of another possible cause: financial speculation.

Speculation drives up the price of a commodity beyond its natural value and can happen in several ways — for example, when investors hedge against
future oil prices if they are expected to appreciate.

Now, econophysicists Didier Sornette of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Wei-Xing Zhou of the East China University of Science and Technology, together
with Ryan Woodard of ETH Zurich, claim that speculation must have driven some of the escalation in oil prices. They have found evidence for a
“bubble” — an indicator of speculation — in prices since 2003, when the cost of an oil barrel was four times lower than it is today.

Super-exponential growth
Bubbles are a controversial topic in academic finance because there is no clear way to define them. However, Sornette’s group says it can pin them
down by examining the precise rate of growth in prices.

In an economy without speculation, the price of commodities tends to grow by a fixed percentage every year; this is an exponential rate of growth. But
when an economy is influenced by speculation, the percentage increase can grow too. This gives rise to a power-law growth or, as the researchers call
it, a “super-exponential growth”.

Sornette’s group has looked at three different models to see if oil prices exhibit super-exponential growth. Each of these models is based on a
“log-periodic power law”, which characterizes the super-exponential growth, and contains three main parameters: the time when the bubble is
expected to end; the exponent of the power law; and a scale factor. The researchers found that all three models fitted the oil-price data well,
implying that the growth has indeed been a bubble (Physica A submitted; preprint at arXiv:0806.1170v2).

‘99% certain’
Could it be that there is no financial speculation, but that the demand for oil from China and India is growing super-exponentially, like a bubble?
Sornette’s group cites figures on world oil supply and demand from the International Energy Agency that suggest this cannot be the case. Sornette
told physicsworld.com that he is “99% certain” speculation is influencing current oil prices.

Sornette group first came up with his theory of super-exponential growth as a symptom of economic bubbles in 1996. In 2005, they used it to predict
the burst of the US housing bubble.

About the author
Jon Cartwright is a reporter for physicsworld.com

I haven't done a direct link to the article as it is only available to members.

So what you are telling me is that demand spiked the price of gas from 2.50 to 4 dollars in the matter of a couple months. Please tell me where this
consumer base sprouted from.

The truth is that it is the speculative market that jacked the prices so high so fast, not the demand. Demand explains to me why gas went from 1
dollar to 2 over the course of some years. When I bought my truck a year and a half ago it was 2.50, and it stayed that way for almost a year.
Suddenly it gets jacked up to almost 4 dollars in the matter of 4 months. Thats speculative markets doing, not demand.

GREAT JOB on lowering gas prices there. If anything, the US is doing the exact opposite of what will lower gas prices.

LOW GAS PRICES and ENVIRONMENTALISM -do not- co-exist! If you want to help the environment, stop using ****ing oil altogether, or else shut up about
it! Alberta is the least of your problems, considering all the US plants across the river I see letting pure black smoke billow out day and night.

Originally posted by maximerto
I find it funny you lot in the US are making a big deal out of $6 a gallon when you don't know how much we're paying for ours. Basically we pay for
our petrol over here by the liter, 4.5 liters are in a gallon. Each liter of unleaded for us is costing £1.18, with diesel over £1.30. So this works
out at £5.39 per gallon. So when this is converted into the US dollar, which is 1.96 comparared to that of the british pound it works out at $2.31
per liter. Then once this is converted is comes out at $10.41. So basically we're paying almost twice what you're paying over there.

Look, i'm real sorry you have to pay more for gas than we do now but your bad luck doesn't change the fact that gas is four times what it cost 8
years ago and the gas bill is beginning to seriously influence the budgets of many Americans.

I get this same song and dance from a friend of mine in Denmark. He's been crying about the price of gas ever since i've known him and saying we
should be happy. But the price of gas is relative. People in my profession make a lot more money in the UK than they do here in the states and so I
would be in a better position to spend those dollars on gas.

There is a lack of understanding of how speculators work. When congress speaks of "speculators" what they are really talking about is international
hedge funds like the Quantum fund and others. hedge funds

And speaking of hedge funds. not so long ago I saw an article somewhere about how 'invested' cheney is in the hedge fund market. I don't remember
which ones he was involved with, however, it seems that it would be wise to find out and keep an eye on them as those particular areas would be likely
to 'burst' somewhere down the line.

There was a reason he invested in them. Might give us an idea of where they plan to strike next.

The high cost of corn is related to the ethanol now being produced.
The cost of oil can be controlled by our government if they wanted to control it.
Most people fail to acknowledge the huge tax imposed by our government usaually around 2.25 per gallon. The trouble lies with the politician who
receives huge kickbacks and campaign contributions from major companies to sell out the american consumer.

We should be upset that everyone who comes up with an alternative source of energy is either bought off or if they can't be bought then they are
killed.
Oil...we don't need your stinkin oil.
Zero point energy!
thanks
fastwalker

Is this too much of a drop? Honestly, if people are anything like me, the day they went that low they would go on a field trip just because the gas
prices are cut in half. I think this is an extreme drop that should not be done, because fuel buying will most likely go up sharply as well. I believe
a decent drop in the $3 range would be better for the economy.

Just wanted to add that while watching the news yesterday a study came out explaining that in the year 2000 speculators controlled 30% of oil
contracts, as of today they are in control of 70% of oil contracts... i think that says it all.

"If all of the supply of oil is really being consumed at the current prices, then it does not make sense to blame those prices on financial investors
who are neither supplying physical oil nor consuming physical oil"

- Severin Borenstein, director of the UC Energy Institute

Are the speculators actually driving up the prices? How? By creating a shortage? If so, then were are they storing all the oil from the contract that
they are buying up? In their back yard? As Borenstein states, what we're calling "speculators" are in reality simply commodity investors. Any
investment in a commodity is a specualtion. They're hoping that the price goes up.

When a speculator buys contracts for 100,000 barrels of oil to be delievered in August, he's buying in at say $130 a barrel hoping that the price
will go up. How does the purchase of a futures contract create an actual market shortage? It doesn't. When August comes around, the speculator has to
sell his contract to a company such as Exxon or Shell. If not then he is the proud owner of an oil tanker with 100,000 barrels of crude oil.

The only way speculators could be driving the prices is if they affected the supply side or the demand side. Since they neither produce oil, or
consume the oil they actually make a minimal amount of difference in the selling price. To state otherwise is junk economics that would be soundly
laughed at in any real economics class in the country.

I submit, that we have more investors (speculators) in the oil market because there is in fact an actual growing gap between supply and demand. The
investor on Wall Street see this. Why doesn't Congress or the Main Stream Media point this out. What we have is a shortage of oil. Putting the breaks
on investing isn't going to change this fact at all.

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